Her er er en Sevilla fans syn på Reyes, og hvor han bør brukes på banen.
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''Reyes has always played second striker, except for the season you (Arsenal) signed him (in other words, except for half a season) although our coach had tried him wide on various occasions, the result was never completely satisfactory.
I can say to you that when he was playing as second striker, he wasn't exactly the same player you see for Arsenal, because then he had total freedom to appear in any part of the pitch, right, left, centre in attack, in defence... he always popped up to help the team as the situation required.
I would have to add to the abilities you already know of, that he never lost the ball, never gave a bad pass and the only way to stop him was to foul him. For Sevilla it's very important not to lose the ball in midfield, the defence comes first, so if he didn't know how to keep the ball, he'd never have been the second striker in our team. Another relevant fact is his consistency. Logically he had good games and bad games but he always played at a fairly high level and created danger. When Joaquin and Reyes were compared, the regularity of Reyes was more favourable than Joaquin's inconsistency.
I've written of the qualities Reyes had as second striker because I believe they are what Reyes has lost principally since playing wide.
The fact is that playing wide all the time, his performance goes on a downward curve until several games later he's reduced to a ghost suffering at Arsenal. This has nothing to do with how he's playing for Arsenal now, it's something that already happened to him here in Sevilla.
Reyes is fast, left sided and… anyway he has everything needed to be a good left winger. Our coach was interested in trying Reyes in this position because there are very few players of this nature in Spanish football. The result is that, from the start, his normal level dropped quite a bit and with the passing of time, the situation worsened. Anyway, at that time, a team like ours couldn’t be allowed to have its best player playing beneath his capabilities so he didn’t spend too much time on the wing.
He played on the wing more regularly in the last year, the reasons: The arrival of Dario Silva and Julio Baptista (good forwards) and above all the expressed wish of Inaki Saez (the national coach at the time wanted Reyes to be the team’s left winger)
That year, he began pre season as second striker scoring a few goals, he was in top form.
Once he went to play wide, the fans didn’t complain too much, whilst he was in form, Reyes fulfilled his role only too well (although way below his level) and besides, Baptista was scoring goals. The net result was the team carried on benefiting. What happened on the wing was his game became extremely inconsistent, each time alternating poor games with some good ones until after two months he was playing absolutely horribly. To try and get the player back, our coach put him back as second striker, but the cure was worse than the illness, between the habits he’s picked up playing wide and the poor form he was showing, he was incapable of controlling the ball, nor a decent pass, he’d lost his vision, he got stopped by his opponents… a disaster.
He had to be substituted and only with time did he recover his form and his usual good game, when he made it, the coach returned him to the wing and the process repeated itself, that’s to say, to begin with playing well and afterwards extremely inconsistent. Finally, in the middle of all of this, he was sold to Arsenal.
I can think of many reasons why he doesn’t perform wide, you are going to have to trust me, you haven’t seen the other Reyes to compare yet.
In my opinion the three factors affecting Reyes are the lack of space, the monotony of the wing and Reyes doesn’t know how to dribble.
When the coach put him wide he thought that if it went well with two or three defenders in the middle of the pitch, wide he only had to deal with one, he should be able to flow easily.
This was an error, Reyes doesn’t dribble,…. With space and freedom to go where he wants, he’s a completely unpredictable player, when he went at a defender he simply made a small feint, a stop or a change of rhythm (all very subtle) the defender got confused and when by the time he was paying attention Reyes was already flying towards goal.
The problem is that on the wing, Reyes gets a dead ball with little option to get away and little space to manoeuvre, the result is that the only route he took to get past the defender was a long pass to himself and go by on speed.This method became a habit for him until in games all he did was hit the ball long and run after it. Obviously, in no time at all, all the defenders in la liga knew how to put the brake on Reyes, they simply waited for him to hit the predictable pass to himself so they cut it out, most of the time with a foul, but it’s a foul on the touchline without much danger…. After a month Reyes couldn’t flow and got into games less and less, and what’s worse, he was picking up bad habits, one of his best qualities was when he played as second striker he always ran with the ball stuck no more than than 10cm to his feet (this is why it was difficult to get the ball off him) but his way of playing on the wing he got used to slinging the ball long every time he got it, exasperated to see how he lost possession every time he went one on one.
But the real punishment for Reyes was the monotony of a position like the wing, without space. In this position he couldn’t develop his imaginative football nor his vision, he is limited, he gets bored and frequently disappears from games.
In my opinion what’s happening with Reyes is what happens with the super talented, they have so much capability that the limits and they are not given the freedom to develop all their potential they get bored and frustrated. ''
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Reyes bør spilles i den rollen han er best i over tid. På den måten kan han få ut det utrolige potensialet han har.
Jeg føler en 4-3-1-2 formasjon kunne passet oss bra, om vi hadde hentet inn en ny sentral midtbanespiller. En sentral midtbane bestående av Cesc, Diaby og (?) med Reyes bak Van Persie og Henry kunne fungert bra i mine øyne. Særlig siden kantene våre ikke er så mye å skryte av for tiden.